Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's actions have contributed to the rise of politicians such as Alabama's Roy Moore, who won the Republican nomination for an Alabama U.S. Senate seat Tuesday.
"I think basically what has happened is that Donald Trump, our president, has laid out the foundation for the Roy Moores to emerge, to be able to win races like this," Cummings said Wednesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Moore has been criticized for his stances against abortion and homosexuality. He has twice been removed as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for ethics violations, according to CNN.
Cummings said that Moore and Trump are similar, although Trump supported incumbent Sen. Luther Strange against Moore.
"The fact is Roy Moore probably is more akin to Donald Trump than Strange. And so I think basically that this climate has been set," Moore said in the MSNBC interview.
Trump wrote in an early Wednesday tweet that he had spoken to Moore for the first time, saying he "sounds like a really great guy."
The Maryland congressman has criticized Trump over race issues before. In August, after Trump pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio. Cummings wrote, "POTUS claims that he wants to unite the country and fight against racism, yet his own words and actions show the opposite."
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